FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Sartorius sent investors fleeing on Thursday with a weak first quarter. In early trading, the Dax-listed preference shares of the laboratory and pharmaceutical equipment provider lost around twelve percent to 340.50 euros. This meant that the gains posted in 2023 were completely gone. The shares had already been running weakly since the beginning of February. On Thursday, they were by far the biggest loser in the slightly lower Dax index.

A trader said that Sartorius had significantly missed expectations in all key figures. The currency-adjusted drop in order intake by almost one-third was shocking. Analysts had already anticipated a weaker first quarter, the trader said, but not to this extent.

In the first quarter of the year, Sartorius had fallen significantly short of its year-earlier figures. Because customers reduced their inventories and the corona business now hardly makes a contribution, sales revenue declined. In addition, higher costs led to weaker profitability.

The surprisingly weak start to the year and the unexpectedly sluggish order intake at the Bioprocess Solutions (BPS) division created uncertainty for business performance in 2023, JPMorgan analyst Richard Vosser wrote in an initial assessment Thursday. This was not changed by the company's confirmation of its full-year targets./ajx/bek/mis